Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced a $20 million expansion of drug abuse treatment programs in the state in response to “an opiate epidemic” that caused him to declare a public health emergency on Thursday.

Patrick said he is convening an emergency session of the Massachusetts Public Health Council to act on emergency measures and further recommendations that will be generated after 60 days, including how to coordinate services in the state and how to align private insurance to pay for drug treatment services.

In addition, Patrick said that the Department of Public Health will now mandate the use of a prescription-monitoring program, which was previously voluntary for physicians and pharmacies, to better safeguard against the potential abuse or misuse of painkillers and other drugs.

Explaining his reasons for the public health emergency declaration, Patrick said that 140 people have died from suspected heroin overdoses in the last several months in Massachusetts. Nine of those fatal overdoses have taken place in Taunton, according to police.

Patrick also called for the re-tasking of the state’s Interagency Council on Substance Abuse and Prevention with added members from public health agencies, health service providers, law enforcement, families impacted by the opiate epidemic and municipalities, including Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. The interagency council is being asked to make its recommendations in 60 days for additional actions, such as how to better coordinate services, ensure a full range of treatment regardless of insurance and how to divert non-violent criminal defendants into addiction treatment programs.

In an interview with the Taunton Daily Gazette, after the announcement, Patrick said that the $20 million would be targeted funding.

“The plan I asked for to form the interagency council is to be a statewide plan,” Patrick said. “That does not mean they will spend the money per capita, the same all around the commonwealth. It will focus where the issues are, and get the biggest impact with the money being spent.”

Patrick attributed the heroin overdose problem to expensive addictions caused by Oxycontin and other pain-killing pharmaceuticals, which have led to users turning to “cheap and highly potent” heroin. Patrick said that this opiate and heroin abuse has led to a 90 percent spike in overdoses from 2000 to 2012.

“We’ve been seeing this big and growing problem with Oxycontin for some time,” Patrick said during the announcement. “It’s turned into a related problem with heroin … having to do with greater availability and relative cheapness.”

Patrick said he visited drug treatment programs on Wednesday and talked to patients and others there to try to get an idea of what they are going through. Patrick said he learned that treatment plans are not one-size-fits-all, and that going forward more needs to be done to increase the amount of information available to the public about what kinds of treatment are available.

“What came through to me so clearly yesterday … is the kind of hit-or-miss nature of the way people find recovery services right for them,” Patrick said. “I accept and understand not every solution is the same for every individual, that there are different programs that make a difference for different people.”

But Patrick said there needs to be “more order and predictability” in terms of how people find the services that are available to them. To that end, Patrick said his administration would work to ensure better information comprising the wide range of treatment options is being given to the families of those who are affected.

“There is a trial-and-error quality to the way many families find and use recovery services,” he said.

Patrick also said his administration is acting to universally permit first-responders to carry and administer naloxone, known under the brand name Narcan. He said Narcan will also be made widely available in pharmacies through a standing-order prescription, in order to provide greater access to family and friends who may witness the overdose of a loved one. But first his administration must work with pharmacy companies to make sure the drug is in stock, he said.

Additionally, as part of his plan, Patrick announced a state ban on Zohydro, prohibiting the prescription of the newly emerging painkiller until safeguards are in place against potential diversion, overdose and misuse. The drug needs to be “tamper-proof” before it is allowed in Massachusetts, he said.

Patrick told the Gazette that he knows first-hand the devastating effect addiction has on drug users and those around them.

“I lived with an uncle who had a heroin addiction,” Patrick said. “I know it from that perspective growing up. I met many families of people suffering from addiction and had some in the room yesterday (during a visit to a drug treatment program). ... I have visited recovery centers and treatment facilities all over the commonwealth.”

Patrick said that the state will be more strict on doctors and pharmacies with its pharmaceutical monitoring program, which his administration is now mandating.

“We put it in a few years ago on voluntary basis,” he said. “Many practitioners are using it but not every practitioner is using it or using it well enough. We can’t have any outliers any more.”

Patrick told the Gazette that he would also work harder with leaders in other states to crack down on the shipment of drugs from Canada into the Northeast.

“One of the things that I will do is convene my counterparts from around the region, to convene with public health and safety officials, to come up with regional response,” Patrick said. “It’s not limited to Massachusetts in and through the commonwealth. Meanwhile, I have with other governors written neighbors to the north and Canada about stopping the flow of narcotics from Canada from into the region.”

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